“This screams direct to DVD”: The Second Hellboy Reboot isn’t Living Up to Guillermo del Toro’s Rich Legacy as Poster Leaves Fans Upset Who Are Expecting the Worst

SUMMARY

• Hellboy: The Crooked Man released it's poster, and fans cannot take the lack of quality that is on display.
• Fans believe that the poster looks like something made for a direct-to-DVD special, rather than a film which is receiving a theatrical release.
• Mike Mignola, who was involved in the making of the film, believes this is the most faithful adaptation of the character.

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Hellboy’s second reboot has a very low budget as compared to its previous two iterations. While the first version of the character had a fun time being in the hands of Guillermo Del Toro, the second had a similarly big budget under Neil Marshall. However, possibly because of the abysmal performance of the David Harbour starter, the second reboot of the film does not have as much money behind it.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy || Credit: Sony Pictures

Now that the poster for the film is out, fans are concerned that the film might not be suited for a theatrical release, given the tiny amount of money that has gone into it. Further, fans believe that the film has an odd ‘direct to DVD’ quality that is extremely off-putting.

Fans have taken to X to express their discontent with the film’s aesthetics

Hellboy: The Crooked Man | Millennium Media

A number of fans on the internet have come to the conclusion that the film feels markedly different than its predecessors.

While David Harbour and Ron Perlman‘s version of the Hellboy character had a distinct theatrical feel to it, a lot of fans feel like The Crooked Man, despite its character’s accurate looks, looks incredibly cheap.

While the film has Mike Mignola personally involved, the aesthetics that it boasts have turned a lot of fans away from the film. However, Mignola, who created the comics, personally saw to writing the script of the film, which can at least cause the fans of the comic series to have faith in this adaption of the film.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is the most faithful adaptation of his work, says Mike Mignola

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is the second reboot of the IP | Millennium Media

The Crooked Man, revealed by Mike Mignola, is one of the most well-done adaptations of Hellboy to the live-action medium. In an interview with ScreenRant, he revealed:

Well, it is the most faithful. We did the comic and created the Bobbie Jo character (played by Adeline Rudolph), but for the most part, it was one story. That’s as opposed to what a lot of people do, which is when you go to the source materials and say, ‘I want to combine this with this and this and this and this.’

We’ve had that, and we’ve had very loose adaptations, which are cool… This is the only one where I was actually co-writing the screenplay.

This adaptation of Hellboy will pull from one story alone, instead of taking elements of multiple stories to stitch a narrative that follows the trends of the industry. Given the vibe that Hellboy usually has, adapting a single story will allow the narrative to indulge in the horror and tension that Mignola set up in the original source material.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is scheduled to be released on 27th Sept, 2024.

Written by Anuraag Chatterjee

Articles Published: 879

Anuraag Chatterjee, Web Content Writer
With a passion for writing fiction and non fiction content, Anuraag is a Media Science graduate with 2 year's experience with Marketing and Content, with 3 published poetry anthologies. Anuraag holds a Bacherlor's degree in Arts with a focus on Communication and Media Studies.